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The Labour Party overhauled its plans for online coverage of the 2004 annual conference in the past few weeks, lining up a virtual conference complete with blogs from party members, web chats with government ministers and a daily conference newspaper.

The Labour conference took place in Brighton from 26 to 30 September. The party's 'virtual conference' was heavily influenced by coverage produced by the Democrat Party in the US to cover their own convention in July this year.

Headed by web editor Andrew Saxton, the site introduced blog-style conference diaries written by Labour Party chairman Ian McCartney, 17-year old party member Stephanie Peacock and Greenwich councillor Danny Thorpe. Among the postings was Mr McCartney's account of the conference's airport-style security.

"When and wife and I arrived at conference on Friday with our luggage the security guard asked me if I had packed the bag myself. 'Yes,' I said.

"My life fell apart around me as he opened the bag and pulled out a full set of women's lingerie, curling tongs and a load of make up."

The blog was picked as the Guardian's pick of the day on Tuesday.

Those who couldn't make it to conference could watch live webcasts from the conference floor, including the prime minster's key speech on Tuesday afternoon.

• Journalists queuing for access to the Labour Party conference on Monday were frustrated by half-hour queues at the security checkpoint. One of the two metal detectors at the media entrance was conspicuously out of action - apparently because it had been installed under a metal pipe and went off continually...

• dotJournalism's favourite lunch venue is just a short distance from the conference centre and has been besieged by "difficult customers" all week. One particularly stroppy bunch were the pro-hunting tweedies - later spotted heckling the prime minister during his key speech.

More news from dotJournalism:
Web is vital for new BBC audiences
Broadband use booms
Tory conference gets Wi-Fi access
Cut the internet cord

See also:
Labour Party: http://www.labour.org.uk

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
bbc | broadband | the guardian | wifi | united states | labour party | web chats | internet cord | metal pipe | media entrance | democrat party | ian mccartney | danny thorpe | stephanie peacock | andrew saxton |

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